Magic Treehouse re-boot Chapter One - The Hunt
by Murkoise
Summary: A re-boot of the original books for a young-adult audience - attempts to address the issue of why anyone would possess a magic time-and-space-travelling treehouse.


Chapter 1 - The Hunt

"OK you two - if you're going to stay up past midnight on Halloween you're going to make yourself useful! The fire's low - there's plenty of wood under the treehouse but someone needs to go and get it - put your coats and boots on and go bring another box of logs in."

The glow of the stove lit the living room with a soft and flickering light, keeping Mom, Dad, Annie and I warm as the storm raged outside, rain lashing the windows, wind whipping and buffeting the house, making it creak like a ship at sea. The electricity had gone out hours ago, and Annie and I had come downstairs to huddle by the fire in our blankets, picking over the slim haul of candy we'd gathered from the few houses opening their doors to the weather on the worst Halloween on record.

"Do we have to?" We groaned, gathering our flashlights and dragging our feet as we picked our way to the back door, taking our time pulling our coats on over our pajamas and squealing as our bare feet found their way into our clammy rubber boots. "Ready?" I asked Annie, and she nodded as I unlocked the back door. A sudden blast of wind and rain filled the kitchen as the door was wrenched out of my hand and flung open and the gale surged into the house.

"Close that door kids!" Dad shouted from the living room as we stepped out onto the deck, the cold and wet stinging our faces. Annie clung to my arm as we made our way down the slick wooden steps onto the sodden lawn. We leaned into the wind, trying not to slip as the pools of light from our flashlights played across the yard. We ducked under the bows of the huge pine tree, under the treehouse, grateful for the shelter it provided, and cursed Dad for putting the wood store this far from the house. For a moment we looked back at the sheets of water pounding the roof, then grabbed each other in fright as lightning lit up the sky. The garden was bright as day for an instant, strange with unfamiliar shapes and shadows in the harsh illumination. A moment later a roll of thunder louder than anything I'd ever heard before broke over us.

"It sounds close!" Annie shouted, trying to be heard over the wind.

"Yeah! Let's get the wood, and get back to the house!" I called back, pointing to the plastic box by the stacked logs and kindling. Annie nodded, and we got to work stacking wood, our waterproofs already soggy, our wet hair clinging to our faces. Lightning flashed again, this time thunder followed almost instantly, deep like the drumming of horses' hooves in the air, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, the air crackling with energy. "Annie! That was too close - we need to get out from under this tree!" I yelled, turning to look as I felt Annie's hand on my shoulder.

"Jack." She said, in a low hushed voice. "Stay very, very still, and be very quiet. Do you see that?" My eyes followed her pointing arm, but I could scarcely believe my eyes. There, in the pine needles, only feet from where we crouched under the low treehouse was a creature. I thought at first that it must be a doll, a toy of some kind, laying crumpled in the dirt, blown by the wind and made eerily realistic in the unusual light of the storm, but no, the creature stirred, picking itself up as if it had just fallen to earth.

It was about a foot tall as it stood up, wearing what at one point might have been an elegant shimmering dress, although whether it was made from a green fabric, or from leaves sewn together I could not tell. It straightened, its delicate form shaken, making a show of brushing mud and pine needles from its clothes, shivering in the wet and the wind.

We backed away, Annie and I, not knowing whether to be surprised or terrified. "Jack." She said. "Look - it - it has - it has wings!" Indeed it did. Gossamer things, like dragonfly wings rose from the creature's back. We stared, unable to believe our eyes, and then, the thing spoke. In a voice that was simultaneously soft and reassuring, powerful and commanding, the creature spoke:

"Hold! Fear not. My name is Neeve, and I am precisely what I appear to be. I have no time for your questions, or to speak to you now of the unseen, but rather I have need of your aid. Not only I, but my Queen. Answer me only this - will you give us sanctuary this night?" Lightning flashed again and thunder rolled, the sound of horses hooves clear now, and the baying of dogs loud in the angry storm. I heard a sound like a hunting horn, then others, answering voices in the dark, nearer now. Could this really be a fairy? Could we trust it? I could hear my heart pounding loud and fast in my chest as I weighed our options.

"Annie! Run!" I shouted - grabbing her arm to cover the short distance back to the house. Another flash, and something big hit the ground with a heavy thud. Like a falling star, thumping into the lawn with an impact that shook us, it barred our path to the house. We cowered back under the tree as we watched the creature, for there was no other word for it, uncurl itself in the shallow hole its landing had made. My eyes could not focus, and whether it was the rain and the uncertain light, or something else I do not know, but I saw the thing in flashes of impressions - teeth, scales, claws, eyes. Fierce and burning eyes. As I watched in amazement it changed, shifting, turning, unfurling, and finally resolving into the shape of a tall and beautiful woman, dry and unruffled by her fall and by the wind and rain howling around her.

The fairy who had introduced herself as Neeve dropped to one knee, and bowed her head. "My Queen." She said.

"On your feet. Now!" The woman shouted, a voice like honey and ashes that made me want to stand although I knew that the command was not for me. "Do they agree to grant us sanctuary?" She called loudly to Neeve.

"I await their answer my Queen." Neeve cowered as the woman turned her gaze to us for the first time, and I felt my terror slip away, as a sense of peace, of trust and comfort filled me. As we huddled in the pooling water and mud under the tree in the roaring storm, the baying of hounds and the thunder of horses hooves growing louder by the moment, and I felt more content then than at any moment before or since. The woman drew herself up, taller now, the rain not seeming to touch her as she stood amidst the tempest and let her gaze rest upon us.

"I am Queen Mab of the Unseelie Court of Faerie and I have need of your aid. Traveling between the worlds the Wild Hunt ambushed my retinue and we were forced from the Paths. We are not equipped to fight, and I cannot contend with the Hunters here, on this of all nights. I stand before you to request the sanctuary of the pure of heart. Children - understand that my life and my realm may depend on your answer."

Annie and I turned to look at each other. She nodded her head, but I felt myself shaking with fear. "Can we trust her?" I whispered, my voice shaking. The sound of horns and of horses was almost upon us, and the Queen shouted with renewed urgency, a faint note of desperation in her regal tone.

"Now! Children - you must answer now! The Hunter cannot cross the threshold of the pure at heart. You must speak the words - will you give us sanctuary this night? Will you save us from the Hunt?"

Neeve stood, facing her queen as the sound of the horses, dogs and horns grew deafening, the beat of their hooves drumming in my heart. She shouted to the queen above the noise "My Lady - we cannot wait - we MUST go now. They are upon us." The Queen looked at us once more, before turning her back, the shimmering of her cloak hiding her shape once more.

"Yes!" Annie shouted, and the Queen was once more visible, looking directly at us.

Neeve turned as well, a look of astonished hope in her eyes, calling to us "Do you answer truly, of your own free will? Do you grant us sanctuary this night from the storm and from the Wild Hunt?" The sound of the wind and rain seemed to fade away as I looked open-mouthed at Annie.

"Yes." Annie said, her voice clear and confident. "Yes, we do." I stared at her, wondering at her composure, and wondering what kind of trouble she might have invited, until the moment of peace was shattered.

Neeve shouted "Now My Queen! NOW!" From the west, through our neighbor's yard, I saw a sight that I will never forget. The Hunt, for that was the only thing it could be, burst into sight. A host of men and things like men on huge black horses. The horses' mouths frothed as their riders shouted and howled, wielding swords, clubs, and spears - leaping the fence, while enormous dogs, their bared teeth gleaming, barked and ran at the horses' pounding feet. The first horse dug its hooves into the ground, throwing up clods of mud and grass as I noticed that its feet had not appeared to touch the earth before that moment. The horse stood and pawed the ground, and it was close enough for me to smell it, its sweat, the steam from its nostrils, the leather of its harness. Its rider, an impossibly huge man, massive sword in hand, a horned helmet covering his head and face, leapt from the saddle and landed on the ground where Mab had been moments ago. I realized I had not seen her move, but now heard her voice calling to us from the treehouse above.

"Quickly. Take my hand children." Mab said to us, kind and powerful as the man stepped forward, and though we longed to slink backwards, we felt our bodies reaching for Mab's hand as she lowered it to us, grasping us and lifting us onto the deck of the treehouse, her hand both tender to the touch and dreadful in its strength. "Go inside children. Now." We needed no more commands from her as Annie and I rushed across the deck and into the little house in the tree, huddling together as the storm raged outside and the fearsome noises of the horses and dogs of the Hunt echoed in our ears.

Neeve rushed into the cabin after us, bowing her head to us in thanks before turning to face the open doorway. I watched her, her tiny form somehow suggesting nothing so much as the shape of a coiled snake ready to strike, her fragile wings moving slightly, almost nervously as I heard her muttering beneath her breath, strange words I could not understand. With a single motion Neeve gestured around the cabin, flickering light tracing from her fingertips and seeming to touch the walls, playing and fluttering as her hands moved. "My Queen!" She called. "It is done."

We heard Queen Mab, outside the cabin, address the horned figure. "Most noble Erlking! Leader of the Wild Hunt, I congratulate you on a fine chase. Go now, and know that you need not fear retribution from the Unseelie Court for your actions this night. Honor is satisfied, your hunt is victorious, but your quarry is run to ground. You cannot hunt us here, for we have been given sanctuary in a house of the pure at heart. Leave us now, and tell tales of your great triumph over Queen Mab tonight."

For a moment we strained to hear anything above the baying of dogs and howling of the wind, and then the great sound of the storm seemed quiet, not because it abated, but because the voice which followed dwarfed it, booming out, deep and terrible, felt more than heard. "_Queen_ Mab. I fear you not, nor your whole court of Fey. You are not queen of _this_ place. My Hunt has pursued you through the Paths, a Fairy Queen unhorsed in a foreign realm, at bay and cowering behind children, and you ask me to leave? There is no honor in a hunt without blood. 'Sanctuary in a house of the pure at heart' you say? Queen Mab, this 'house' you grovel in is not worthy of the name. It does not even boast a threshold. I care little for your accords, and your rules, and tonight of all nights, when the veils between the worlds are thinest, and the blood is high in the veins of the hunters, I care nothing for them. Hide, and cower if you must, we will dig you out!" As he spoke these words the sounds of baying and shouting grew louder, the horns of the hunters blowing loud in the night.

My eyes were deceived by a blur of motion, and the Queen was inside the cabin before I could figure out quite how, her size not diminished, yet somehow not stooping in the low building. "My Queen." Neeve said, bowing. "He is right. This house will not hold against the force of the Hunt. I have warded it as best I can, and I do not doubt your power to do more, but it will not stand to be the foundation for great magic, it will break apart."

Mab noded, a weariness in her eyes for the first time, and in that moment I heard a scrabbling, a barking and howling, and into the gap of the treehouse window leapt the fierce snarling face of a huge wolf, teeth, saliva, tongue, eyes burning like coals, snapping and growling, straining to find a weakness in Neeve's magic that would let it in. Annie and I leapt back in terror at the wolf, but Mab simply raised her arm, and the creature flinched and whelped as if struck, drawing away from the window, but prowling outside, scrabbling and clawing at the treehouse.

"My Lady, we MUST unmoor it." Said Neeve.

"We cannot." Snapped Mab, anger in her voice. "These are innocents. They have given us shelter, we cannot repay them by involving them in our business with the Erlking."

Lightning struck again, this time I was sure it must have hit our tree, and at the same moment the treehouse lurched as something with the shape of a bear roared in front of the window, throwing its weight against the side of the structure. Boards cracked, nails popped, and the cabin settled at a new and alarming angle to the ground.

"My Lady. With respect, we cannot stay, we have no choice. They are already involved - the Erlking will not forgive them. If I unmoor the house I believe I can steer it into the Paths, and land us somewhere in Faerie. The Hunt will not pursue us there, not even tonight. We can return the children in the morning. Offer them a boon in return if you must, but I beg you, we cannot stay here. The Erlking will NOT be merciful."

With a sickening thud the treehouse lurched again, a giant clawed paw striking it, catching on the edge of the window, wrenching it away from its pilings, pulling it to the ground as Annie and I clung to one another in terror.

Mab nodded almost imperceptibly at Neeve, and the tiny fairy wasted no time. She seemed to grow in stature, if not in physical size, and raised her arms, throwing them forward, pronouncing syllables that sounded at once like words, and also the opposite of words. The treehouse began to fall, the creature tearing it away from the tree as Annie and I were flung against the back wall, now a floor, now once again a wall as the house began to spin. It spun faster and faster. Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.


End file.
